When I began my dirge essay, I had very little background on what exactly a dirge was, and what role they played in society. I was sitting in the College Union (where I do most of my work), with some friends, and I began to speak out loud.
With intentions split between procrastinating their own work, and genuinely wanting to help me with my assignment, about 4 of us, consisting of a political science major, a theatre major, and a business administration major, began to do research. It was interesting to me the different paths everyone took to better understand what exactly a “dirge” was. Initially, I focused on the Shelley poem that was included in the syllabus. My motivation for using the poetry to better understand a dirge was to examine the emotions behind the word; I was much more concerned with how it made people feel than what it actually was. Another friend, after a few google searches, began to play (garnering the attention of many others in our general vicinity, might I add), a slow, sad song. For her, getting the comprehensive experience of what a dirge sounded like was the most obvious way to understand what a dirge was. This struck me, as it was very different than how I thought the “appropriate” way to learn about this was.
I know there isn’t the most content here, but it’s an interesting commentary I noticed through my research!